The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias where people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability. Even intelligent people can be affected when skills are specific to a task they have not learned or developed. Overconfidence can also lead people to overestimate their competence, engaging in wishful thinking and taking risks beyond their actual limits. The four stages of the Dunning-Kruger model are unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and finally unconscious competence as skills are developed.